Habs regroup on eve of Round 2

The Canadiens are not practising today in Pittsburgh, probably both physically and emotionally spent after their Game 7 victory Wednesday over the Capitals in Washington.

Head coach Jacques Martin and a selected group of players will be available to the media late this afternoon. Courtesy of CJAD’s Rick Moffat, who charters with the team as its English play-by-play radio voice, we expect to have audio posted here probably early this evening.

Hickey and I are en route to Pittsburgh and will be feeding the site and its hungry Habs fans from both teams’ pregame morning skates tomorrow.

Last night’s dramatic Game 7 victory by the Montreal Canadiens over the Washington Capitals was watched by an average audience of 4.7 million viewers on TSN and RDS combined according to overnight data from BBM Canada. Audience levels peaked at 8.2 million viewers (TSN and RDS combined) in the final minutes of the third period as Montreal held on to upset Washington and win the series.

TSN’s audience of 2.8 million for the game was the highest audience ever recorded for an NHL game on TSN and was the most-watched program on Canadian television last night in all key advertising demographics. The Montreal-Washington series ranks as the most-watched playoff series ever on TSN (any rounds) with an average audience of 1.8 million viewers over seven games.

RDS’ audience of 1.9 million represents an impressive 51% share of the Quebec-Franco market and was the top-ranked French network in all key advertising demographics. RDS’ average for the Montreal-Washington series was 1.34 million over seven games – 12% higher compared to Canadiens playoff games on RDS last season.

TSN’s average audience for each of its first round playoff series is as follows: Montreal-Washington (7 games on TSN) – 1.8 million Detroit-Phoenix (7 games on TSN) – 811,000 Chicago-Nashville (5 games on TSN) – 777,000 New Jersey-Philadelphia (4 games on TSN) – 545,000